The present invention relates to a method and system for decoding intersymbol interference (ISI) channels for digital communication. More specifically, this invention relates to the use of a complement states grouping technique (CSGT) for reducing the number of states of a Viterbi detector (VD) for ISI channels.
In decoding an ISI channel, maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE), implemented with a well-known Viterbi detector, has a significant performance gain compared to other detection techniques, such as a decision-feedback equalizer. However, the implementation complexity of MLSE is generally larger than other detection techniques, and the increase in complexity could present a challenge for low-power and high-speed implementation. It is therefore desirable to reduce the implementation complexity of the Viterbi detector at the expense of a reasonable, preferably negligible, performance loss compared to MLSE.
It is well known that the complexity of the Viterbi detector is directly related to the number of states. The number of states is determined by: EQU M.sup.K equation (1)
where M is the size of the channel input signal set and K is the length of the overall channel impulse response or the channel memory.
A classical technique for reducing the number of states of the Viterbi detector is described by M. V. Eyuboglu and S. U. H. Qureshi in an article entitled "Reduced-State Sequence Estimation with Set Partitioning and Decision Feedback," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 13-20, January 1989, incorporated herein by reference. In the reduced-state sequence estimation (RSSE) technique described in the above-referenced article, each superstate in a reduced-state (RS) trellis is formed by combining states of an original maximum likelihood (ML) trellis using Ungerboeck-like set partitioning principles set forth in G. Ungerboeck, "Channel Coding with Multilevel/Phase Signals," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. IT-28, pp. 55-67, January 1982, incorporated herein by reference. In the case of binary transmission, this classical RSSE technique simply becomes a state-truncation technique, where each superstate in the RS trellis is formed by truncating the ML state vector to a suitable length K', wherein K'&lt;K.
Although the aforementioned technique provides a good tradeoff between complexity and performance for many communication channels, there are numerous applications where the classical RSSE technique does not provide a satisfactory solution that reduces the complexity with a reasonable performance loss. For example, for an Extended Partial Response, Class 4, (EPR4) channel with binary input, which is commonly encountered in magnetic recording systems, the loss caused by the classical RSSE is intolerable. Therefore, what is needed is a reduced state technique which ensures negligible performance loss while reducing the complexity of the Viterbi detector.